I'm helping my best friend through a terrifying illness after her baby, says Adele

Urging other mums in a similar crisis to seek help, Adele described Laura’s story as “intimate and heartbreaking”.

Adele, 30, said alongside a picture of the pair together: “This is my best friend.

“We have been friends for more of our lives than we haven’t.

“She had my beautiful godson six months ago and it was the biggest challenge of her life in more ways than one.

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“She has written the most intimate, witty, heartbreaking and articulate piece about her experience of becoming a new mum and being diagnosed with postpartum psychosis.

“Mamas, talk about how you’re feeling because in some cases it could save yours or someone else’s life.”

Writing for a parenting blog, Laura talks about a “horrific” labour which her doctor believes might have triggered the illness.

After coming home with her son, Laura describes the feeling of having fallen out of love with her life. She tells how her skin went pale, she could barely eat or drink and started suffering severe anxiety attacks.

Adele performing on her world tour in 2017 (Image: GETTY)

As things got worse, Laura even accused her partner Hugo of kidnapping their baby.

Laura, for whom Adele wrote the song My Same on her album 19, was eventually admitted to hospital and spent two weeks away from her son.

She struggled to recognise herself and says “suicidal thoughts” became normalised.

But she now describes herself as recovering and “happy confident and strong” after receiving support from family, friends and a psychiatrist, plus medication and psychotherapy.

Postpartum psychosis is “a particularly serious form of mental illness”, said Vivien Watefield of the charity Home Start.

She added: “Anyone in the public eye brave enough to talk about this helps mums to realise that they are not alone.”

The symptoms of Psychosis

Postpartum psychosis is a serious mental illness and should be treated as a medical emergency. Possible signs are…

•Manic moods – talking and thinking too much or too quickly, feeling unjustifiably “high” or “on top of the world”.

•Experiencing hallucinations and delusions – thoughts or beliefs that are unlikely to be true.

•Feeling confused, afraid and behaving in a way that is out of character.

•Showing signs of depression, being withdrawn or tearful, lacking energy, having loss of appetite, anxiety or trouble sleeping.

•Feeling suspicious or fearful and restless, feeling muddled and behaving unfairly to those around you.

Postpartum psychosis is a serious mental illness and should be treated as a medical emergency (Image: GETTY [stock image])

I was drenched in dread … all i knew was doom

Extracts from the blog written by Adele’s friend Laura Dockrill reveal the misery of postpartum psychosis.

She writes: “My doctor believes that my traumatic birth could be what triggered my illness. Things started to get more and more frightening.

“Home became like the Walt Disney castle, I couldn’t wait to get back and just climb into bed and be all cosy. But the second I got home and into bed I was drenched in this terrifying overwhelming sense of fear and dread.

“I felt like I was dying. My breath was short and tight, my heart was pounding out of my chest and my stomach churned.

I turned to my partner Hugo and said ‘Something’s not right with me, I don’t know what it is but I’m not OK’.

“I felt like I was dying.” (Image: GETTY [stock image])

“I thought I was going to hurt myself in some horrendous way and I was doing everything to try and avoid that plus I didn’t want my family to see me crumble away before their eyes and watch me turn into an anxious wreck.

“My psychosis took a dark turn. I still can’t exactly work out what exactly happened or what form it took on, all I know is I was completely terrified, lost, confused and scared for myself and my son and that I didn’t trust ANYBODY – I even accused Hugo of kidnapping our baby.

I was in a black hole where the whole universe was a threat to me. All I knew was doom.”

After a spell in hospital she is now recovering but advises others: “Mental health is no joke, I had a peep into another world and let me tell you it was a scary place.

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